DC Mustangs Baseball Ease Past Tulia

It took some timely hitting and some good pitching for the Mustangs to advance into the next round of post season play.

In the bi-district postseason the Mustangs outlasted a pesky Tulia Hornet team 7-4 and 5-4 stifling a late-inning comeback in both games.

After falling behind in game one 1-0 in the top of the second inning, the Mustangs came back with two runs of their own in the bottom half of that same inning and never trailed again. The Mustangs added two more runs in their half of the 4th inning and three more in the 5th and then held off a Tulia rally in the last two innings for the win.

Luis Rodriguez, Irving Mijares, and Daven Blanco paced the Mustangs offense with two hits each while Braden McGary added one hit. Mijares and Rodriguez both had doubles in the contest.

Mijares and Blanco both had two RBI’s while Rodriguez and Chad Dyck both finished with one.

The Mustangs defense was somewhat sloppy as they committed three errors that led to two unearned runs.

Blanco went 6.2 innings on the mound and was credited with the win. He gave up eight two earned runs on eight hits, struck out four and had one base on balls. Rodriguez finished up the game going 2/3 of an inning. He gave up no runs, one hit, and had one strikeout.

After the Mustangs had jumped out to a 5-0 lead in game two, Tulia made it interesting by coming back with four runs in the bottom of the 6th inning and stranding potential game-winning runners at 2nd and 3rd in the bottom of the 7th inning.

The Mustangs tallied single runs in each of the first three innings and added two more in their half of the 5th inning for their 5-0 lead. Tulia came back with their four runs in the bottom of the 6th innings and after two were out in the bottom of the 7th got runners on base through a walk and an error to set the stage for late inning excitement.

Luis Rodriquez started the game and went five innings before running into some problems giving up three runs on four hits. Ferny Vega came on in the 6th inning to end the rally and finish out the game. After getting the first two batters in the bottom of the 7th, Vega issued a walk and after an error and a pass–ball both runners made their way to 2nd and 3rd. However, Vega got the last batter the pop up to shortstop Mijares to end the game that allowed the Mustangs to advance to the next round of the post-season play.

Uriel Rodriguez paced the Mustangs with a solo homerun in the 5th inning and two RBI’s. McGary, Luis Rodriguez, Mijares, Mario Sanchez, and Dyck all had one hit. Sanchez had a triple and later scored what turned out to be the game winning run. Mijares also had a triple and scored a run.

Uriel Rodriguez and Luis Rodriguez both had two RBI’s and Dyck had one. Luis Rodriguez was credited with the win. He gave up three runs on four hits, struck out eight and walked four. Vega went the last two innings giving up a single run on no hits, struck out one and walked two.

Up next for the Mustangs will be Alpine, district winners from District 3-3A. A double header will be played on Friday in Pecos starting at 4:30. Should a game three be necessary it will be played on Saturday, also in Pecos, starting at 2 pm.